I did, however, have a backup in case I absolutely hated them:
Totino's to the rescue!
Luckily, it didn't come to that!
Ingredients
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup uncooked white rice
- 3 large green bell peppers, halved and seeded (I used one green and one red because that's how it was packaged at the store)
- 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef (I planned to use ground turkey, but since the grocery stores here stink, I used ground chicken instead since that's all they had yesterday)
- 1 onion, diced (As I've said before, I almost always omit the onion)
- garlic powder to taste
- salt to taste
- ground black pepper to taste
- 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
- 2 cups finely shredded mozzarella cheese (I used an Italian blend of cheeses because that's what I already had in the fridge)
Directions
- In a medium saucepan, bring water to a boil. Add rice and stir. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Place green bell peppers in a medium saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes. Remove peppers from the water and set aside in a 9x13 inch baking dish.
- In a large saucepan over medium heat, brown the ground beef; drain. Return to heat and mix in onion, cooked rice, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Pour in tomato sauce and mix thoroughly. Let simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Spoon the meat mixture onto each half of the green peppers. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes or until mixture begins to turn golden brown.
- Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the top of each stuffed pepper. Return to the oven and bake until cheese is lightly browned, about 5 to 10 minutes.
Then I figured it out. Duh.
I did some other modifications to the recipe. I added Cajun and Mediterranean spices because when I was taste-testing the rice/ground chicken/tomato sauce mixture, it just didn't have enough flavor for me. Obviously if I'd put the onion in, that might have taken care of it, but since I don't do onions, the spices did well. I think I could have even put more in.
The first few bites were just okay, but the more I ate, the more I liked it. I clearly made way too much though. The recipe calls for 3 and I only used 2...and I used a pound of ground chicken instead of a pound and a half. I could only eat one of the green pepper halves though so now I have 3 halves sitting in my fridge. I'm not willing to give up my chicken stir-fry for lunch so it might be dinner tonight again (why not, hubby's out of town until Sunday!).
Nutritional Information
Amount Per Serving Calories: 465 | Total Fat: 20.3g | Cholesterol: 98mg
